Send this to a friend

Thank you for sharing. Your email has been sent.

Email address of friend (insert comma between multiple addresses):

Your email address:

Copy Me

Add a brief note:

Staff
Cincinnati Business Courier

This month’s Wellness Works feature focuses on the changing role of pharmacy benefit management in the overall healthcare system. That the roles for health system players are changing is nothing new. It’s an expected, necessary and overdue trend as we evolve to a more effective health system. It’s also a trend that sits at the heart of employers’ interests. Those employers that are taking advantage of the clinical oversight and data analysis available through their pharmacy benefit managers, insurers, pharmacists and other healthcare players will have immeasurable advantages in terms of healthier workforces and higher productivity versus those that accept the old paradigm.

The changing role of pharmacy benefits from a card used to pay for a prescription to an integrated piece of the system helping patients adhere to their treatment protocols is being mirrored in other facets of healthcare. Primary care physicians, once simply where you went for isolated health issues, have evolved into counselors that proactively oversee their patients’ overall health and advise as often as treat. Insurers, once nothing more than claims processors, are harnessing the power of the information flowing through their systems to help people manage chronic disease, avert health catastrophes before they happen, and even maintain health over the course of their lives.

These changing roles will benefit employers almost as much as individuals. The more employers understand and seek those healthcare, insurance and pharmacy providers at the forefront of this evolution, the more they will benefit from them.